Nixon’s Western White House in San Clemente for sale again – now at $63.5 million

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Former President Richard Nixon bought the sprawling estate on a coastal bluff in San Clemente in 1969 and dubbed it La Casa Pacifica. It's nestled among trees at the southern tip of Orange County. (Photo courtesy of Google Earth)

The Western White House in San Clemente (Register file photo)

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Part of the original home was remodeled. (Register file photo)

The grounds of Richard Nixon's former Western White House (Register file photo)

A view of La Casa Pacifica and part of the garden (Register file photo)

President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon stand at La Casa Pacifica in 1969, the year they bought it. (File photo)

President Richard Nixon’s former Western White House, an oceanfront San Clemente estate owned by retired Allergan CEO Gavin S. Herbert, is back on the Multiple Listing Service after a hiatus.

The price is now $63.5 million.

The iconic estate was listed at $75 million for several months in 2015, then went off the MLS in September of that year. It was relisted for $6 million less – at $69 million – in April 2016, then went off the listing service again in October.

Herbert has owned the 5.45-acre estate for more than three decades.

Nixon bought the sprawling estate on a secluded coastal bluff at the southern end of San Clemente in 1969. He dubbed it La Casa Pacifica.

The property, set behind private walls and fences, has some 15,000 square feet among all the structures, according to the listing, including a 9,000-square-foot main residence.

The estate boasts a pavilion with a grand main room, bar, guest suite and den, a two-bedroom guest house, pool and pool terrace, lighted tennis court, gazebo on the bluff, expansive lawns, vegetable and succulent gardens, a greenhouse, catering facility, four staff residences, security annexes and a private well for landscaping water.

When Nixon resigned from office, he returned to the seaside retreat to write his memoirs. He moved to New York in 1980 and sold the home and 26 acres to Herbert, who founded Allergan Pharmaceuticals with his father in 1950, and developers George Argyros and Donald Koll.

Herbert later became chairman emeritus of Allergan, the company that grew from making eye drops to producing Botox and breast implants. He also has owned Roger’s Gardens, a lavish home and garden store in Corona del Mar.

The Western White House remains a historic property, even after a large part of the estate’s acreage was divvied up into lots for private residences. In 2009, Herbert entered into a 10-year preservation agreement on the home with the city of San Clemente in exchange for a tax break.

“We’ve always regarded it as a historic property,” Herbert told the City Council. “It’s like owning a big boat on the ocean. It gets a little rusted. We have projects going on literally every month to keep the property in order.”

He noted that 17 heads of state visited the estate during the Nixon era. But the property’s historical past goes back well before then. Hamilton Cotton, a financial partner of San Clemente founder Ole Hanson, built the home in 1926. Cotton was a Democratic Party supporter who entertained President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the residence. The pair, the story goes, played poker there.

Herbert called selling the home “a very hard decision,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “I think (my wife and I) felt we were caretakers. We care a lot about who the next caretakers would be.”

Marilyn Kalfus covers news, issues, and trends for The Orange County Register's award-winning Sunday Real Estate section, which in 2015 and 2017 snagged the top prize for best U.S. newspaper real estate section from the National Association of Real Estate Editors. She also writes stories, edits photos and puts together slideshows for our popular Hot Homes feature about iconic, big-ticket and unusual properties on the market. On weekends, she edits police, breaking news and general assignment reporters.